Tag Archives: mozy for mobile

The Mozy iOS app now supports data decryption for customers using personal key encryption. Android update due within weeks.

Since its initial release in March this year, the Mozy app for iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices) has quickly become a favorite feature for Mozy customers. With the app you can access any file you have backed up to Mozy right from your mobile device. Complete with photo previews, document viewing, and the ability to open files in other applications or send them via email, the app makes Mozy more than just a way to protect against data loss. Along with similar access through any browser, the app provides a way to access all your personal and professional files from anywhere.

Here’s a quick retrospective of the progress of our iOS app so far:

Mozy app 1.0 debuts for iPhone & iPod touch (March 2011)

1.01 introduces full-screen support for iPad as a universal binary (April 2011)

1.1 extends support to MozyPro end users (June 2011)

Today, we released version 1.2, now available at no charge from the App Store. Aside from several performance enhancements and bug fixes, this version delivers a feature that many (often quite vocal) customers have been awaiting: personal key data decryption.

About Personal Key Data Decryption

To protect customer privacy, Mozy online backup always encrypts the data for each file before sending it to Mozy. About 95% of our customers opt for Mozy’s default encryption. The remaining 5% opt to employ a personal key for encrypting their backups. When you encrypt with a personal key, it ensures that the only person who can readily decrypt your files is you. Of course, this also means that Mozy has no way to decrypt your data if you forget your personal key.

Data Decryption Comes to the iOS App

Until today, customers who opted to use personal key encryption could not access the content of their files through the app. The app was incapable of decrypting downloaded files.

With this latest release, you can set the personal key used for backup on each of your computers (even if each uses a different key). The mobile app can then download any file, use the key to decrypt its content, and then allow you to use the file as you need. You can view it, email it, or even open it in another app.
Mobile & the Trade-offs of Using a Personal Key

There are certain services that Mozy performs online to support the Mozy app. For example, the file names used by digital cameras make it hard to know what’s in a photo, so the Mozy app displays photo thumbnails.

When you view a folder containing photos, an online service generates a thumbnail for each photo, allowing the app to download a small image instead of whole photos, saving time and bandwidth.

However, if your photos are encrypted with a personal key, then Mozy can only provide a generic thumbnail indicating that Mozy cannot read the photo.

But you can still download the whole photo and–once downloaded and decrypted by the mobile app–you can view it on your device.

Your Turn: Go Rate the Update

We know many Mozy customers have been waiting for this update. If you’re one of them, please rate the Mozy app in the App Store.

A Note to Android Users

We know you want personal key support, too. We’re working on it right now and aim to release the 1.2 update for Android before the end of October.